Caelus
by ClonedEsper
Summary: The first story in a series of fanfiction set towards the end of the Eighth Doctor's life. Welcome to Caelus, where the rain never stops and travellers can never leave. Keira Nystrom is one such traveller stuck on the colony, just as she was on the cusp of realising her ultimate dream: travelling across the universe. Can a certain Time Lord come to her rescue?
1. Chapter 1

Rain. Rain. Go away.

It hadn't stopped raining in Caelus for months. Distinctive green eyes, luminous and almost inhuman, watched droplets fall down a window belonging to one of the colony's many cramped and dingy motels. Keira Nystrom had made a habit of watching the rain. It was the only thing about the planet that differed from the space-station she called home beyond mere colours and the very thing that had kept her here. As soon she was out of one craphole, she had ended up stranded in the middle of another...

The brightness in her eyes faded away as the pale-skinned woman sighed, flummoxed. She turned around to face the plain, violently white room she had had to call "home" for the past month. Everything reminded her of "home" and she hated it. She had wanted to run away. She had wanted to experience the universe that had dangled ever so tantalisingly above her head for her entire life. She had wanted different and what she got was anything but. Sitting on the bed with her persistent frustration, she pulled on a pair of black combat boots. She needed to get out. There must have been _something_ on this moon worth visiting.

Keira walked aimlessly down cold, dark, neon-lit streets, looking up to the sky wistfully. Down here... Bars, clubs, shops. City living. All the same old, same old. Up there... infinite wonder and potential. She was so close. _So close_.

Her idle, aimless daydreaming set Keira blindly drifting across the expansive metropolitan colony. She ignored everything around her as she entered places uncharted to her limited knowledge of the city.

"Hey. Hey you!"

Keira snapped back into reality. Her head shifted back to Caelus as her eyes were greeted by a man walking up to her. He was dressed in a black, militaristic outfit. She presumed he was some kind of special ops team. He certainly looked the part.

"Yeah?" The brunette responded.

"Did you know you're about to enter a restricted area?"

Restricted areas? Special Ops forces? Keira didn't get the memo when she got stuck here, then again, she never got out much either. Behind the soldier, Keira couldn't help but notice a strange, blue glow rising from beyond the next set of buildings. She was curious but it clearly wasn't her place to look. Quickly turning her gaze back to the soldier, she gave a smile. She didn't want this to become hostile, after all.

"Sorry... Officer? I had no idea. I'm one of the people trapped on this rock. Gotta love it right?" As she spoke, Keira opened up her arms, gesturing towards the rain.

The officer looked down with a look of slight distrust. He probably gave it to anyone he met, Keira figured. "Just turn your pretty little head one-hundred and eighty degrees and we should all be good, clear?"

"Aye-aye captain!"

As requested, Keira made a full 180. Her mind was ablaze with thoughts as to what the soldier was guarding. Could it be the reason why she was stuck here? It had to be, surely...? It was the only interesting factor this place had going for it...

Curiosity was getting the better of her. She had to find out.

First, she had to get around the guard and any potential buddies that he had. She looked for alleyways, side streets or any other sneaky nooks and crannies, any kind of place that allowed her to get closer to the glow. It wasn't difficult. Caelus was built like a maze in some ways. Its veins were heaving with smaller, less travelled streets. So far, so good.

Approaching where she needed to be, she stopped as she tried to work out what to do next. She scanned the buildings in front. She figured out a path she could easily use to scale her way up. She was gifted in that regard. A gift from her upbringing in the dump that was Star Colony 17, the deepest, darkest and dingiest dive of the Humanian Empire.

Looking back down to the street below, a problem stopped her plans in their tracks.

The next set of streets were swarming. Soldiers were left, right and centre. Keira had to be rational and sensible here. There was no way she was going to get past this much security. She sighed, her little adventure ruined and turned away, making sure not to run into anyone until she was safely in the clear.

Two shadows moved across the corner between alleys. Keira dove for the nearest hiding spot. Crouching behind a low wall, two female soldiers walked past chatting away.

"You know, I'm kinda glad we're stuck out here and not at the centre of all this. Simple, quiet, no fuss..." one of the pair said.

"... and totally boring." the other interrupted.

"And sometimes boring is best. Trust me on that one." The first soldier broke into a small laugh.

Once Keira made sure the soldiers were a safe distance away, she leapt over the wall behind her and finished making her way back to safety. Curious. All those guards for nothing? Why? She wandered back towards her room, her mind consumed by that thought.

Somewhere along the way came the sound.

A wheezing sound slowly faded into her ears. It became louder and louder. Out of curiosity, she followed it around into an alley. Slight disappointment greeted her as she saw what she was following. A blue box. A "Police Public Call Box"...?

The green in her eyes turned ethereal once more as data flashed before her eyes. Police Box. Earth. United Kingdom. Mid 20th century. Well, all that did was simply make things stranger...

The box continued to make the same noise. Only it was distorted, messy and broken. It almost sounded like the thing was... sick. How could that be? With immense caution, the brunette slowly walked up to the box... Her hand slowly lifted to push open the door...

Until it opened for her.


	2. Chapter 2

"Oh, old girl... what happened to you?"

From out of the box stepped a man. Clad in a long dark green coat and with a face covered in melancholy, he quickly filled with anger as he turned to face Keira.

"...who are you? Did you bring me here?"

Keira was just confused.

"Wha...?"

"Let me guess... CIA? Of course...! You just can't get enough of pestering me, can you? I have already told you. I tell every other agent... I have no interest in fighting your miserable, pathetic war. You can sabotage my TARDIS all you like but I. Won't. Change. My. Mind. This is your war, not mine."

CIA? War? Again, wha? She had no idea what this man was babbling about. Though... looking at the man again... his attire... Keira snapped her fingers as she came to a eureka moment.

"Ohhhh... You're one of those role players, aren't you? I've stumbled into one of those role play things haven't I?"

"Role players?" The man just became perplexed.

"Yeah, I've heard about you. You all pretend that you're in a different era of history, right? I thought it was all on dedicated planets or whatever but it explains your "police box" and well..." Keira outstretched her arms and flapped them up and down in The Doctor's direction, trying to communicate words that couldn't come into her mind. "And to answer, no, I wish. I'm just a technical officer in the Universal Exports freighting company. Nothing as glamorous as an intelligence officer or anything like that."

"Oh..." Perplexity became doubtful progression. "...my apologies... I was under the impression you were somebody else... But I still have to ask, what are you doing here? In front of my ship?"

… ship? The man must have one odd view of history. "I heard well... that. It was different and let's just say different is what I'm looking for right now." Keira motioned her arm to point to the police box. "I'm sorry but did you say ship?"

"Yes." He lightly kicked the wooden structure with the heel of his brown boot. "My spaceship. Something's wrong with her."

"Right..." Keira let out a slight snicker. That thing? A spaceship? "Let me guess. It's stuck? Can't escape the grim, grim world of Caelus like the rest of us?"

"Trapped in a grim heaven...," The Doctor smirked at his own joke, a moment before the woman's words set in and his eyes flared with a sudden interest. "What do you mean by 'can't escape like the rest of us'?"

"No ship that comes to this place can leave again. We're all stranded here. It seems to be related to the rain. Everything started when the rain started. And the rain hasn't stopped for months."

"Hmm... fascinating..." The fantasist sprang into motion, darting his way out of the alleyway.

"Hey. Where are you going?"

"I'm off to find out more. It's what I do."

"Well, you're the first interesting thing about this place and could be my key back outta here. There's absolutely no way you're going off without me."

The man turned back with a smile. "Well, come on then," he almost continued running off before turning around once more. "Oh... Almost forgot. I'm The Doctor."

Keira smiled back. "Keira. Keira Nystrom."

"Well then, Keira Nystrom... What happened the day the rain started?"

"Uhh... Our freighter landed here a couple of weeks after it all started but I read up. Nothing was reported as out of the ordinary. But..."

"... but..."

"Well... I was just roaming about the place. There were soldiers all clambered around an area nearby. The place was swarming and just behind them was this... odd... blue glow rising from the buildings. And I overheard some of them. Apparently that place isn't even the most important part. There's somewhere more central to the issue."

The Doctor murmured, pondering matters inside his head "How about we try to obtain some proper answers, shall we?"

"Really? How are we going to do that? The place was swarming with soldiers."

"That wouldn't be an issue. However... perhaps... it might be a good idea to stay away for now. Yes, let's try something more simple. We ask the people. Someone must have seen something the day this all started. Know anywhere to start?"

"I have one idea."

The Hole in the Wall was a quiet place. Keira had become a regular at the bar ever since she first came to Caelus. Red and wooden would describe the place best. It was also pretty poorly lit, a stark and relieving contrast for the woman from the bright, white motel room a few floors above. The people who populated the establishment were of a similarly grim disposition. It wasn't until now that Keira noticed that.

"Hey! Keira! Lemme guess. You want the usual?" a brunette called out, attending to the drinkers from behind the bar.

"Nah, not today. Thanks." Keira responded, leaning over the bar.

"Hmm... Okay. So what are you after?" High heels clacked against the wooden floor as the barmaid approached the duo.

"Information..." The Doctor interrupted. "...about the day the rain started."

"Ah, the rain. Thing's almost a miracle in my eyes."

"A miracle?" The Doctor lit up, curious.

"Yeah..." The barmaid chuckled lightly. "Rain keeps people on this rock. That makes people down. People are down and they wanna drink. So they come here. It might not look like much but honestly? This here is some of the liveliest times this place has seen!"

Keira laughed internally to herself depreciatingly. That was her all right.

The Doctor grumbled, showing his lack of interest. "But what happened the day the rain started? Anything interesting or odd?"

"Well, there was the flash..."

The voice was deep and gruff and obviously not coming from either woman. It was coming from an older bearded man, his head down on the table. The Doctor walked up to him, now he had his full attention.

"The flash?"

"This great blinding, red flash took over the sky right before the rain started to fall. That's it. It was like a pulse coming from some tower in middle of the colony. That's it."

"The civil tower?" The barmaid asked.

"Yeah... Yeah! What other tower would I be talking about?"

Keira lit up. She knew the place. She bounced off, ready to lead The Doctor around where they needed to be. "Thanks."

The barmaid threw a smile across the room. "Hey. No problem."

The Civil Tower loomed over all of Caelus, right at the heart of the colony. The steel monolith rose higher and higher into the dark skies above. As they approached the building, the pair noted that getting in was going to be a problem. Crawling all over the entrance were soldiers, clad in black special ops uniforms.

Something was definitely up here.

One soldier, a tall but oddly slender looking man, easily well over six foot, walked up to the curious pair. Beneath dampened brown hair, his face was stern and professional.

"What are you doing here? No civilians are allowed in the proximity of the Civil Tower."

The Doctor immediately dove into one of his coat pockets. "Ah... well... you see... My assistant here and I...," he pulled out a wallet and flipped it open bearing it's contents to the taller man. "...we're on official business. Direct from Earth. Strictly need to know. I hope you understand."

The soldier looked the wallet. He squinted as if he was intently checking it over. Then he nodded. "My apologies, Dr. Smith. The rest of the work expedition is down in the basement."

"Thank you, soldier."

"Sir."

The Doctor and Keira then passed on by into the tower without any kind of issue. Keira looked to the Doctor, her face blatantly showing shock of how easy that all was.

"OK, so how did you do it?" She said, her voiced somewhat hushed.

The Doctor showed the wallet once more with a smirk. "Psychic paper. Shows people what I want them to see."

The lobby was dark and derelict. Lights faintly pulsed in a rhythmical fashion. The first port of call was the lift. The Doctor pushed the button for the roof, much to Keira's confusion.

"I thought they said it's all happening down in the basement. Why are we headed for the roof?"

The Doctor turned to the brunette with what she will learn will be a typically cryptic response, "Let's simply call it a hunch..."

Looking at Caelus from this high up gave Keira a new perspective on things. THIS was what she was dreaming of, seeing the vast expanse of a city glistening under a dark, alien sky. She basked in the sight, her breath taken in awe.

The Doctor took a moment out of his search for whatever he was looking for, to watch the woman. A smile formed. Seeing someone in awe of the wonders of the universe was a warming sight. Especially now more than ever. He quickly snapped back onto the search before he lets his thought pattern mover any further along.

Keira turned her head back towards The Doctor.

"So what's this 'hunch' all about?"

The Doctor persisted in his search. "The flash. It originated from here, and past experiences suggest to me some kind of transmitter..."

"...and the most logical place to put the transmitter is on the roof..."

"Exactl..." The Doctor stopped mid-word as he saw something that caught his eye. Something covered in a red plastic cover. He uncovered it and...

"Aha!"

There it was, a silver panel connected to the rod poking up from the centre of the roof. The Doctor became embarrassed as he realised how obvious it turned out to be. He pulled open the panel and pulled out his favourite trusty old tool: his Sonic Screwdriver. The small silver, pen like tool glowed as it whirred away.

"Let's find out what you are..." The Doctor quietly muttered to himself.

The sonic continued away... scanning and whirring away... until The Doctor reached an epiphany. "Oh..."

The sound of alarms sharply cut through the exclamation as the scans accidentally set of some kind of alarm. Their cover was potentially blown.

"Keira... HIDE!" The man exclaimed.

Keira did so. She scampered behind a crate, out of sight. The Doctor stayed. He needed to continue scanning the transmitter. He needed to find out more about what he was facing, even with the knowledge he was likely to be caught.

Things grew tense between the sounds of the city, the rain, the sonic and the repetitive beeps of the elevator slowly ascending to their position, a constant yet unnecessary reminder of the advancing soldiers.

Seconds seemed to mutate into hours...

The doors opened...

"Doctor Smith... you are under martial arrest."


	3. Chapter 3

Two men were standing over the Doctor. One of them the man he had met at the towers base. The other was noticeably shorter.

"Ah... gentlemen. If you could take me to your leader, that would be most helpful."

The shorter man spoke up this time. "Shut up." He followed up his blunt command with a sharp punch to the Doctor's jaw. Knocked down to the ground, the Doctor was cuffed, violently pulled up and dragged into the clinically lit lift.

The second those doors shut, Keira leapt up back into motion. She had to save The Doctor. He was her her best hope out of here. She raced through the rain to the lift shaft. She peeled open another control panel to it's left. The emergency controls.

Computers were her bread and butter. This was going to be child's play.

She hacked away, bypassing whatever security protocol came her way. Her eyes illuminated brighter than ever before as information whizzed past her vision, disappearing as soon as it appeared until she reached a final screen. The internal security feed.

Now she was here... what was she to do next? Her mind raced. Useless, frantic plans of action came from left, right and centre until the interface in front of her eyes brought up the lift schematics.

Of course!

She searched through the options before her until she found what she was looking for and pressed the button. Wispy, white gas streamed out of every corner of the lift , filling the place up. The two soldiers coughed and spluttered, slowly fading out of consciousness. But not The Doctor, he was fine. Well... that was one setback that needn't be worried about.

The Doctor was confused by the sudden turn of events. He looked down to the men slumped at his boots. The lift intercom buzzed to life.

"Doctor!"

It was Keira's voice.

"Doctor! I'm locking down the lifts now and meet you down on your current floor, OK?"

After one last fiddle with the controls, Keira dashed down the emergency stairwell. 77th floor... 77th floor... 77th floor! She pushed through the door to reunite with The Doctor.

"Ah, Keira! Do you mind?" The Doctor called across the room, his back and cuffed hands turned to face the woman. "In my coat pocket, you'll find my Sonic Screwdriver. Just press the button and it'll work."

Keira promptly followed the man's instructions. As The Doctor took the cuffs restraining him, she wanted to know what he discovered back on the roof.

"We're in grave danger. The rain... it's all why we're trapped but it's more than that. It's also an ignition agent..." The Doctor responded, his voice dim and serious.

"An... ignition agent? You mean..."

"Send out a specific chemical and the rain will set alight, torching this planet and everyone on it to a cinder... Quite a clever but savage way to clear say... a military outpost. Ground any ships that arrive there, before setting it all ablaze..."

Keira's eyes widened.

"Time to get moving then. No way am I going to burn on this rock. Not now."

"Quite... I think it's time to head to that basement..."

"The basement... You mean that place that's swarming with the people who, if we are lucky, want to throw us away to rot in a cell for the rest of our lives?"

"I don't have any better ideas... do you?"

Keira huffed. She didn't and time was potentially running out. They called the other lift to descend down into the pits of potential trouble. The dread, the silence returned once more as the lift descended. The Doctor broke the tension with a question he had on his mind.

"How did you know how to break into the lift security...," he stopped mid sentence as he finally noticed a glint in Kiera's eyes, revealing all. "Oh."

Keira looked away, anticipating unwanted sympathy. "Yeah... I'm one of those freak children. Born in the colonies and dead without this stupid computer keeping my brain working properly. I don't want any charity, OK? This thing has it's advantages. Case in point here."

The Doctor smiled as the silver doors finally opened. As expected, soldiers were waiting. A blonde, middle-aged woman both lead and spoke for the small group.

"Doctor Smith..."

"It's just Doctor actually... Sorry about that..."

"I think you know what I'm going to say next."

"I am and I'm here to say that I think you're all going to make a very, very big mistake. Arrest me and you throw away the best hope you have for saving this colony from turning into one massive cinder-block."

"Is that an ultimatum, Doctor?" The woman's voice became noticeably more hostile as she shook her gun towards the Time Lord.

"ENOUGH. Stand down, Captain." A new voice cut through the tension as the person behind it walked into the room.

The first impression both The Doctor and Keira made of this man was that he was much too young for the authority he held. He was in his mid twenties, oldest. Dressed in a white labcoat and formal work attire underneath, he told the soldiers to stand down.

"We have no idea what we are up against. Frankly, I'm so annoyed that I'm willing to take help from anyone. The name's Miles Stanthorpe."

The Doctor held out his hand. "I'm The Doctor."

"Keira Nystrom."

"Well then, Doctor... Keira... come with me."

The Doctor and Keira walked through the parted path of soldiers. The pair could easily feel the intense glares and uncomfortable, hostile tension of the room all over their bodies. The next room was a massive cavern, digging deep into Caelus' underground. To the opposite of them lay a colossal metal machine, embedded into the rock itself. Between brass pipes, a whole spectrum of colours spilled out into the space in front of it.

Keira was in sheer awe of the behemoth. The Doctor had no idea what it was.

His first instinct was examine. He walked up to the machine, putting the soldiers in the room on edge. They couldn't believe how much leniency this pair were getting. They all smelled a set-up. This pair were probably behind it all. Intense glares continued to be thrown across the cavern.

The Doctor wasn't noticing anymore. He was immersed in finding out more about this device. He started to look around, carefully taking pieces away, crawling under the machine to get as much of an insight as possible.

Keira noticed. She stood awkwardly, watching The Doctor work. She desperately needed something to distract her. She had to make herself useful. She took a brief glance around the room, avoiding the eyes of the military men and women surrounding her and noted some kind of interface hooked up to the machine. She walked over, curious.

The sound of a gun pointing up made her jump and stand still. Slowly turning around, she was greeted by the sight of the stern face of the captain once more.

"And what do you think you're doing?"

Keira gulped. "I... I... I just want to have a look at the machine over there. It's some kind of interface for the device, yeah?"

"That's right... You won't be able to do anything with it though. Machine can only read data about the machine. We have no idea what it is, let alone have any concept on how to control it..."

"So there would be no problem with me reading it, right?"

"No... I guess not." The military woman lowered her gun, much to Keira's relief.

She looked at the screen as it reeled off pieces of information. In the background, The Doctor was muttering away...

"Now if only I can find out a way to determine the Harmonic frequencies..."

Harmonic Frequencies? Keira just saw that data flash by. She focused on the screen waiting for the information to cycle back... Resonance Fluctuations... Electromagnetic flux...

Aha! Harmonic Frequencies!

"Doctor! You want the Harmonic Frequencies? 70,000 to 75,000 Hz!"

From under the machine, the sounds of the sonic increased in pitch.

"Aha! One step closer..."

The machine screeched. The lights now merely pulsed a harsh, almost blood-like red. Something had obviously went wrong.

"Oh no."

The Doctor leapt back up looking the machine.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!"

"Doctor! The readings are going off the charts."

Miles jumped over to the screen. The soldiers jumped into action once more. Everybody piped up.

"What have you done?"

The Doctor looked perplexed and frustrated. He couldn't believe what just happened. The two doctors in the room leapt over to view the interface. Between the two hunched men, Keira hopped onto her tiptoes in an attempt to see what was apparently so important on the screen.

"What's going on?!"

"Bad. Oh, very bad..."

The captain was beyond annoyed with the cryptic remarks.

"DOCTOR!"

"I think I may have tripped some kind of anti-tamper mechanism. If my calculations from those readings are correct, we now have an hour until Caelus' atmosphere is ignited."


	4. Chapter 4

"I told you, Dr. Stanthorpe..." The captain gloated.

Tension lit up once more as the sights all over were poised and pointing at The Doctor and Keira. They were behind everything after all... Keira was terrified. The Doctor tried one last line of reasoning.

"LOOK... why would we trigger a weapon that would burn the planet without a means of escape? I've gotten further than you with the machine in the past few moments than you have in what? Weeks?"

"Months..." Keira quietly corrected.

"Regardless... again... throw us in jail and you're giving me, Keira, you and everyone else on this colony a death sentence."

The soldier and the scientist looked to one another with deliberation. "You had your chace, Doctor. Donovan... Jones... arrest that man and his friend."

As much as the Doctor and Keira proceeded to protest, it was to no avail. Kicked down and cuffed, the pair were promptly dragged back up to the soaked surface of Caelus. Following the soldiers, tied both physically and by knowledge, The Doctor whispered to Keira, noticing a potential way out.

"Keira... can you make out the weapons the soldiers are carrying?"

"Uh..." Her eyes lit up with information. "Standard Sonic Riot Control."

"Aha... just as I thought." The Doctor responded as he casually placed a hand into his coat pocket, much to Keira's surprise. He pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver once more. It didn't take Keira long to work out what was going on.

The soldiers sprang into action as the screwdriver came to life. The sonic waves of the weapons and tool violently and horrifically clashed, disorientating everyone involved. Except for Keira. She promptly tugged on the Doctor's arm, pulling him away towards safety. Now, it was time for The Doctor to be surprised as he slowly came back to.

"How were you unaffected by the Sonic interference?" The Doctor spoke, getting straight to the point.

"I blocked my sense of hearing. Another benefit of the good ol' Brain Computer Interface." Keira responded "How was it you got out of the cuffs so fast, huh?"

The Doctor let out a chuckle. "A trick I learned from an old friend of mine. Houdini."

Keira threw back a look of perplexion as The Doctor sighed, disappointed. Applying the screwdriver once more to free Keira from her cuffs, he took charge once more as the brunette inquired what they were to do now. The question was quickly answered as the pair returned to a familiar location. The blue box that stood where they had first met greeted Keira once more.

"You're kidding..." she complained.

The Doctor entered the booth without a word. Keira followed after a moment's hesitation. She didn't have much of a choice with two soldiers on her heels. She rushed in only to stop dead in her tracks, her eyes struck with awe. There was no way she was seeing this. It was impossible.

The room she was in was so much larger than the booth she had run into. Before the woman stood a majestic, gothic room. Over her head, the ceiling hid behind a projection of the universe, showing images of worlds further far flung than the ones that populated even her wildest of dreams. In the centre of the room lay a tall glowing central spire, surrounded by a wooden control panel, packed to the brim with all kinds of confusing, crazy, contraptions and buttons.

She walked around the room, lost in her sense of awe. She wandered around, examining all the intricacies she came across. Her curious moment was quickly interrupted however by the Doctor's entrance from a door across the room. Feet of wire wrapped loosely around his neck like a scarf, he was holding a device. It was a small white device with a big red button. He moved fast, attaching one end of the wire directly into the TARDIS console before unravelling the wire, as he looked over to a screen nearby.

"As I thought..." The Doctor smiled.

Keira jumped as violent thumping came from the other side of the main door. The soldiers were here.

"DOCTOR! What have you got up your sleeve?" Keira was getting antsy.

"Something that just came to me. As I looked at the machine, I realised there was no way it could muster the power to spread all across a space the size of Caelus. It needs amplifiers. A lot of amplifiers." The Doctor effortlessly explained.

"The blue lights I saw..." Keira mumbled.

"Exactly. That makes it easy for me to create a similar system of my own and hijack the amplifiers with my own counter pulse. The two waves will collide..."

"... and interfere, causing the waves to cancel. Could that really work?" Keira finished.

"Not entirely sure but it's the only hope we've got..." The Doctor said, his tone getting more tense as the words went on. He was anticipating the moment the machine let off the wave that could end Caelus for good. He had to be precise or else it was game over.

He pushed the button. A light engulfed the TARDIS and the whole of Caelus itself as the pulses clashed...

…. and the rain stopped. The Doctor took a great sigh of relief. Caelus was saved.

"As much as that machine is bugging me, it's time to go." The Doctor leapt into action, twisting knobs and throwing levers around the cylindrical panel.

"But Doctor...?" Keira spoke up.

"Yes?"

"What about me? You can't leave me to go out and get arrested. I wasn't guilty!"

"Oh. No, no, no. Don't worry. How would you like to stay and travel the universe with me?"

Keira lit up as she processed the Doctor's words. "Are you serious?"

"Of course. I need the companionship now more than ever and I saw you. I saw the way you look at the universe with such awe. That is what I need more than ever right now. My view on the universe is becoming bleak and cold with each passing day and you provide a chance for me to fight that. So, Keira Nystrom, I ask again. Would you care to join me as I travel across the stars?"

Keira's mouth transformed a beaming grin. Her greatest dream was coming true. "Heck yeah!"

"I'm glad to hear it!"

And with those words, the TARDIS whirred into life as it faded out of existence and began to drift it's way through the veins of time and space. The Doctor sighed, the question as to who built the mysterious machine also drifting away to seemingly become an unsolvable mystery.


End file.
